The 5th Quarter: Redskins 27 Eagles 20
The final play of the game. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)
IT WAS OVER WHEN... Head referee Ed "Hercules" Hochuli announced to the crowd that Eagles QB Nick Foles committed intentional grounding with one second left on the clock. Trailing 27-20, the Eagles drove down to the Redskins' 5-yard line and with eight seconds left in regulation, Foles took the shotgun snap and went back to pass. Seeing no one open quickly, Foles drifted to his left, trying to buy time for his receivers, as DE Stephen Bowen closed in on him. Foles threw the ball to no one in particular as Bowen was dragging him to the ground. [See photo above.] Foles was out of the tackle box so the pass would not have been intentional grounding if the ball had landed at or beyond the line of scrimmage. However, the ball landed one yard in front of the line of scrimmage so the intentional grounding call was correct. A 10-second runoff is customary in these situations and since only one second remained on the clock, the game was over. Five yards away from having to face overtime on the road, the Redskins saved their season for one more week.
STATISTICALLY SPEAKING... Rookie TB Alfred Morris rushed 22 times for 91 yards, giving him 1413 on the season, only the fifth time a Redskins running back has amassed 1400 rushing yards in a season and the first time a rookie has done it. The single-season franchise rushing record is 1516 yards by Clinton Portis back in 2005, so Morris needs 104 yards on Sunday against Dallas to take the record for himself... Morris has 10 touchdowns, the most by a Redskins rookie since Hall of Famer Charley Taylor... PK Kai Forbath hit two field goals today, from 45 and 42 yards, extending his streak to 17 straight made field goals to begin his NFL career, a new record. That includes field goals from distances of 50 yards, 49 yards, two from 48 yards and several more from 45 yards or longer... WR Santana Moss caught a beautiful 22-yard TD pass from Robert Griffin III today, giving Moss 8 TD receptions this season, his most since he caught 9 for the Skins back in 2005... The interception RG3 threw today was only his 5th of the season... Griffin has thrown 20 TD passes this season, after tossing two today... For the fifth straight game he has played, Griffin had a passer rating over 100. He has such games this season... Griffin has thrown for over 3000 yards this year, the first rookie quarterback to do that in franchise history.
Ryan Kerrigan chases Nick Foles. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)
I LIKED THAT... Clearly uncomfortable moving around too much in his knee brace, RG3 instead stood strong in the pocket, completing 16 of 24 passes for 2 TD, 1 INT and 198 yards for a passer rating of 102.4. By contrast, the healthy Nick Foles danced and fidgeted in the pocket whenever pressure got too close... the pass Griffin threw to Moss for a 22-yard TD was about as perfectly thrown as a pass can be... When Griffin did run -- and he only ran once -- he quickly got out of bounds after a five yard gain... NT Barry Cofield was tremendous, chasing down running backs from behind, tipping 3 passes and getting good penetration on his pass rushes... OLB Ryan Kerrigan got two sacks today, both because of incredible effort and fighting through blocks to get to Foles. One of those sacks resulted in a fumble turnover for the Redskins... the Redskins recorded a season-high 5 sacks, with Lorenzo Alexander, Madieu Williams and Perry Riley joining Kerrigan in getting to Nick Foles.
I DID NOT LIKE THAT... DB D.J. Johnson got beaten for a long TD pass for the second straight week. In Cleveland Johnson got caught peeking into the backfield and let a receiver get behind him for a 69-yard TD pass. Today, he tried to jam Jeremy Maclin at the line of scrimmage, missed and let Maclin get behind him for a 27-yard TD catch... the Redskins gave up 411 yards of offense to a 4-11 team playing with a backup rookie QB and missing star wideout DeSean Jackson... the Eagles had five drives of at least 60 yards... The Redskins offense mustered only one drive longer than 60 yards...
AND IT ALL MEANS... The Redskins are 9-6, all alone atop the NFC East and can clinch their first division championship and a home playoff game for the first time since 1999. The Redskins hardly looked their best today, with the offense struggling to maintain long drives and the defense struggling to get stops at all, but they won a division road game and that is usually tough to do. It's going to be a long holiday week for Redskins fans as they wait for Sunday to return, when Washington will defend their home turf against their most hated rival, the Dallas Cowboys. Redskins fans have pined for years for big games in December. Well, it doesn't get any bigger than a home game against the Dallas Cowboys on the final week of the regular season, with the division championship hanging in the balance. Welcome to the big time, Redskins and their fans.
